The Rotax Cutout I'm getting

This is that later 1920s cutout which I'm getting. This is coming from Australia. If you have one of these and want to sell it, please get in touch using the contact page on www.vintagesunbeams.blogspot.com because I know someone who wants one!

Edwardian Rotax cutout

Here are pics of an Edwardian aluminium-boxed Rotax Cutout which I have just bought, I'm swapping it for a later brass-boxed one that's right for the Twincam.

Nivex petrol gauge system

Two more parts on the way: The pump (reproduction) and tank unit for the Nivex petrol gauge I bought at Beaulieu.

NOS Autovac

I've bought another Autovac. This one is in superb condition and has never been on a car. I think the pipe ends and air inlet on the top are later in design, but I can use period ones from another Autovac.

It's exactly the right size and the internals are perfect.

By sheer coincidence, after I bought it, I found out it was in Farnham, just 10 mins drive away from me.

Smiths Speedo, cranks and caps.

A few more parts for the pile... A Smiths 0-120 chronometric speedo. With a case from a Jaeger clock and a new face this will become a Jaeger 0-120 speedo. The Jaeger ones are incredibly rare. I missed one recently that went for a mere £150 - I was gutted :o) It's cheaper to make one!

There's also a set of rods, mains caps and camshaft caps. Fantastic.

New block + dry assembled engine

So here's a picture of my engine dry assembled. Sadly the block is unusable.

But don't panic, because now I have this....

Spare Wheel mount castings

These have just arrived from the foundry (there are four sets here). The brackets bolt onto the rear of the chassis and a tube goes between them, the boss is then clamped to the tube and the spare wheel goes onto it, held on with a spinner. More to make, but all these parts go onto the "pile".

Mould being assembled + block casting

They've cast my block! Here are just a couple of pictures. One of the mould being prepared for casting, and one of them getting ready to pour the metal. :o)

Rotax FT26

I'm over the moon today because of what I've managed to get hold of. This is exactly the right switch panel. It needs a bit of work, but this is a big step forward. The dashboard is almost complete. The remaining bits aren't that hard to find.

This will be built up using parts from the switch panel I bought earlier. The other parts of that switch panel have gone in exchange for this one.

I only found this because I spotted another panel cover (FT17), bought it and then sold it on eBay. The chap who bought it had this one.

Bonnet and some Rotax parts

Well I've just bought a bonnet. It's a replica, that was then replaced when the carburettors were replaced, the small bulge in the bonnet is for one of the carbs, and with different carbs, you need a different bulge.



It's in pretty good shape and I can replace it eventually, the point is it was pretty cheap!

I also have a Rotax switchbox. It's not the right one, but it has all the right parts, just in the wrong places. I can make up a backplate and reposition the parts if I have to. If I find a correct one, I can sell this one.

And finally, I have a pair of dash lamps. One is missing the cover, but that's relatively easy to make, and I've been offered a second on anyway so no problem.

The switchbox is brilliant. They are very hard to find and is a tick on my "tricky" parts list. The dashlamps too, not a very common type and to find two is fantastic news.

The bonnet is a very welcome bonus :o)

A Klaxon

I've finally found the correct Klaxon (actually it wasn't - but I thought it was at the time!). Not all that much left to find now!

Well a lot to find really, but not that much more that's difficult to find. I'll pick the easy stuff up as and when I need it.

I'm now following up a lot of leads on the really difficult stuff too. It all takes time, finding someone who has a part you need, then persuading them to part with it, often by finding something they need as a swap. Otherwise these parts will have to be made.

Beaulieu 2009 day two

And I thought day one was good... I found a nice Autovac, very cheap. Too small actually, but the lid's in perfect condition, so are the internals, and there was really nice original push-pull tap on it which is worth having too.

And then at the very last stall - and I visited ALL the stalls - I found a CE6 magneto. I could not believe my luck. And he wanted a VERY reasonable price for it, and it had a fair spark.
Now admittedly it's the wrong rotation because it came off an Alvis, but that's no problem it can easily be reversed. I reckon it was the bargain of the day.

More Sunbeam bits

And more bits, a Sunbeam magneto switch, a bonnet catch (repro) although I have now been promised an original set of four, so I'll flog that one.

Then a Sunbeam rad cap and a Sunbeam Petrol filler pipe and cap. Both are too small I think, I'll put the cap on my 20.9 radiator and sell them together. Not sure about the pipe I may use that...

Beaulieu

Ahhhhh. The Beaulieu Autojumble. Two utterly knackering days. I'd hate to think how far I walked. So on day one I managed to find a pair of Rotax start switches and a Nivex Petrol Gauge. All bargains, especially the two switches. Now I need to find the little dash pump and tank sender unit for the Nivex.

Got slightly sunburned too.

Then I added even more to my haul...
A Rotax MT77 starter motor, and a pair of Andre Hartford shocks. I'll need to repaint them, but they've been restores. These are the front ones with two interleaves, I need a pair of single interleaves for the rear.

Klaxon Bracket

Another part for the Twincam. I've just bought this Klaxon bracket - from Australia of all places. I expect I'll see a better one at Beaulieu at half the price. Such is life.

More Info...

I actually bought the twincam a few months ago, so the next few posts are me rapidly catching up with the current situation. Before I bought the car, I needed to know what major parts were missing/damaged, major being very expensive to make/buy Basically, that came down to the chassis and the engine block These two parts would cost many £1000s each. I was told of a chassis for sale, and on that basis, decided to buy the car. Strictly speaking, the body should have been on that list too! The block was slightly suspect in that it had been used on another car (although the numbers match this car) and had had some problems, but I decided to take that risk. Blocks have been made for twincams before, so patterns existed.

So now I had the car in storage and I made a photographic list of the parts and started working out what I was missing. It's surprisingly not too long a list and I had some quick successes in locating some of the more difficult parts.

A good run, and some more parts found.

An excellent run in the 25hp yesterday. I took a couple of friends to a pub and we had a good old natter over lunch. The car ran well, but it's getting noisy. The good running is down to the carburettor being restored so it's not running so rich any more. Saves petrol AND wear-and-tear on the bores.


The noise is down to a small hole in the exhaust. I'll bandage it up, then weld it at some point over the winter.

This is actually a picture of my spare carburettor, A Claudel Hobson AZP. The one on the car is an AZP1.


I also have some new parts fore the twincam: A pair of air vents for the body , the casting that clamps the exhaust pipe to the exhaust manifold, Rotax starter switch and a couple of other items.

The Beaulieu Autojumble is in a couple of weeks. Frankly, I can't wait. How sad is that :o) I'm looking out for all sorts of bits and bobs, we'll see how I do.

Pictures of my two Sunbeams

This is my 1927 Sunbeam 25hp. I've had it a couple of years and it's going well now, although it's still leaking a fair bit of oil. That's because of a crack in the sump. I'll get that welded up soon.

This is my 1926 Sunbeam 3-litre Twincam Super Sports. This, frankly, isn't going at all. On the bright side, it doesn't leak oil.

What may surprise some people is that even in its current state, the twincam is worth more than the 25hp.

Right now I'm cleaning up the parts of the twincam and searching for some missing parts. This blog is going to be a history of the restoration of my twincam, and the fettling of the 25hp. The 25hp (Annabel) is going to be sold at some point, partly to finance the restoration and partly because I only have a single garage.

Some parts I had already

Although the car is very complete, there are a bunch of bits missing before I can reach the rolling chassis stage. This is essentially a running car without a body.

I have a Rotax MT65 starter motor from the 25hp, which will be perfect. I'd like another! I was also considering fitting a ki-gass pump to the 25hp so I had found one. The ki-gass pump connects directly to the petrol line and sprays petrol vapour into the inlet manifold. This make the cars easier to start from cold.

All the instruments are missing. I already had a spare speedo, although it's 0-85 instead of 0-120. I think it can be converted without too much trouble, but it will need a new face of course.

As luck would have it, I'd found a magneto switch from a Leyland Truck. It was perfect, apart from being engraved "Leyland" instead of "Sunbeam" of course! About three days before I first considered buying the twincam, I sold it to another twincam owner whose switch was very worn. Happily, he sold me the very worn one from his car which I will pick up at Beaulieu Autojumble in a couple of weeks. I have plenty of time to repair it, I doubt my twincam will hit the road before 2011.

Clocks aren't too tricky, I have about six now that I will select one from.

The next bit of fantastic luck was a really good find on http://www.prewarcar.com/ . I found a rev counter. They're like hen's teeth! Not only that, it 's in perfect condition and was a very sensible price.

I have a clock that has "8 jours" instead of "8 days" so I'll probably use that face and continue the French "theme" as the rev counter is a French one.

I've just bought a Twincam!